Where's the Beach?

Oddly Good Run I ended up making Wednesday a rest day. I wasn't necessarily feeling any worse, but decided to just give my body a break. This meant I had time to get to the grocery store. Not the most exciting thing on a Wednesday evening, but necessary. Today was a long long work day. I was looking forward to getting in a run, but was still feeling stuffy and lots of drainage. I went ahead and went for it, meeting my running partner at her office at 4:45 for our usual route. I remember to bring my blinking light this evening since we got stuck in the dark on Tuesday. I should have brought the headlamp she got me actually. We ended up with a great 6-mile run. I have no idea how I did it, but I managed an 8:38 pace. The only downfall (other than really choking on snot and not having water) was dodging lots of traffic and almost getting hit by drivers totally not paying any attention, dodging meandering pedestrians, random potholes, and then a Doberman that darted straight at

Sniffles and Workouts Sunday afternoon I started to steadily sneeze and sneeze and sneeze until my upper lips was red from blowing my nose. Monday morning I could feel the sinus drainage getting worse. I took a Zyrtec D - usually dries me right up - but my sinuses continued to drip and drain until I had a nice sore throat. Source: 1.bp.blogspot.com via Veronica on Pinterest My plan was to just skip my workout. But I ended up going ahead and getting weights done for biceps, triceps, shoulders. My rationale was that if it sucked horribly, I could stop. And it would be a fairly short workout. I surprised myself actually, and felt a little bit better once I got going. I went with a triset of 3x8 (unless noted). I've been doing high reps for the past 3 weeks, so this was a great switch up and my muscles felt it. TS#1 Biceps curls with rotation Double-arm overhead triceps extension Overhead shoulder press TS#2 Hammer curls Double-arm kickbacks Lateral raises TS#3

Long Run & Pizza Saturday morning I had wanted to really sleep in. I made it to about 8 am because Maddie was barking like a crazy nut downstairs. It was really cold out, so I decided to procrastinate on my run. I just kind of piddled around the house wasting time. Jason and I finally set out for our long run around 11:15. It was sunny, but pretty windy and in the upper 40's. I of course ended up over dressing. I never seem to learn. We ended up getting in 7 miles together then I made a stop at the house to get more water, drop off my gloves, take a gel then headed back out to finish out another 3.25 miles. I almost went for 11 but stopped at 10.25. My body thanked me. I stretched out for a while before cleaning up and donning my compression socks. Then we headed out for lunch. We were both starving and feeling lazy about cooking or even re-heating leftovers. We ended up at a yummy pizza joint we love called Pizza Cafe. I'll admit that we rarely go there unless it'

TDay Recap Thanksgiving day started off by prepping food: caramelizing onions, chopping up bell peppers and onions, blanching green beans, and roasting butternut squash. After doing all of that, Jason and I set out for a run. The plan was 6-7 miles. Jason dropped off at 6 and I finished up another mile for 7. Then we had to quickly get cleaned up and on the road. At least our families all are all in the same city - an hour away. It definitely makes it convenient but also hectic sometimes. My mom's husband had to work so rather than her be alone, my sister, mom and I had a light lunch at my sister's house. I found a recipe on Pinterest that I thought would be great - Penne with Butternut Squash and Kale . Mom brought the kale from her garden, my sister provided the GF pasta, and I made the butternut squash and caramelized onions. I tried to stick to the recipe but made a few changes like adding in chickpeas for protein and basil. I also sprinkled in some locally made goats

Another Hot Run Yesterday, my running partner and I set out for a run around 4:10-ish. Well, she had run about 3 miles before we met up and I had gotten in a mile before meeting up. And that crazy girl ran from her house to mine with a gift in hand for me. I am now the owner of a light that clips onto the bill of my hat. Perfect for dark runs. She's too sweet. Now we can blind people together ;-) It was an icky kind of warm - 74 degrees, high humidity, and almost no breeze. Thankfully the sun was lower in the sky. We made our way downtown near the river then back up up up to her house. I dropped her off at her mile 8+ and then finished out the rest of the run solo hitting 8 miles myself. I enjoy the afternoon runs but find myself totally pooped afterwards. I cleaned up, put on my compression socks and stretched for a while before starting dinner. I went with an easy veggie soup (kind of a toss everything into the pot deal). The only problem is that it took longer than I would

Turning to DVDs Last night I managed to get in biceps, shoulders, triceps from Cathe's High Reps DVD . I'm liking doing the DVDs right now because I don't have to really think. However, I'm ready to get back to the heavier weights vs the higher reps. Though, it has been a great shake-up for my muscles changed up to the lower weights, higher reps. It's amazing how sore you can actually get from just changing up the rep patterns repeatedly throughout a set. The big plus with these workouts, however, has been how short they tend to  be even if you do a set a second round (yes I do this). I need to really do some research and find some effective, but also shorter heavy weight workouts. I had gotten in such a rut of the very standard, boring 3x8 sets usually as supersets. They go quickly, but can be really boring and easy to just go through the motions. Of course, that could partially be that I'm working out at home so that can get a little boring sometimes as

No Double-Digits Saturday morning we got up fairly early, but not to get in a long run. Instead we got ready and hit the road for a 2 hour drive to buy a bike I found on Craigslist. Yep, I'm now the proud owner of a Specialized Dolce. After picking up the bike, we had another 2 hour drive back home. It's amazing how 4 hours on the road can sort of zap you. It's not like I was doing anything other than sitting and getting really antsy. We got home just before 1 and the day was gorgeous, but definitely warmer than I would have liked for a long run.  My legs were incredibly heavy feeling from the start. I had pretty much resolved myself to the fact that I was not likely to hit double-digits. It was just hot. Almost no wind. And for whatever reason, there were tons of unsavory characters out milling about. This made me run faster, but that did not make my legs happy at all.  I ended up giving up on the 10 miles at mille 7. I didn't even have the he

Running or Playing Frogger? Yesterday I ended up meeting up with my running partner after work for a run. As we did on Thursday, I just ran from my house to her office and we looped around the downtown area. We did make a change to our usual route as we had heard news of some crime in one area of the route. Tuesday we had noticed that there seemed to be a large number of unsavory characters milling around. So even though we both carry mace, better to just avoid that area for now. The only downfall was that the traffic was horrendous. I have no clue what was going on, but it was bumper to bumper all through downtown. This is not usual and certainly wasn't the case on Tuesday when we ran. What sucks is that people in this city have no understanding or concept of crosswalks and pedestrians. People will pull all the way into the crosswalks. They do not yield to pedestrians and they never seem to look right. So this made it a little tricky to say the least. Felt a little bit like

Productive Procrastination Yesterday morning I woke up for all of two seconds when Jason got up to go swim at 5 am and then totally crashed back out until the alarm clock made me nearly jump out of bed. It's not normal for me to fall back asleep quite so soundly after waking up in the morning. Apparently I was really tired. I had thought I might get in my workout (weights & kickboxing) at lunch, but by 11 I was thinking of calling it a rest day. My plan changed to going to the grocery store after work. But then by about 3:30 I had decided working out sounded way better than battling the grocery store and after work crowd. Let's just say that was the most productive procrastination I had ever done. I did legs, shoulders, back, biceps and abs from Cathe's High Reps DVD and then did the MMA Kickboxing DVD for an hour workout. Luckily I had enough items to throw together a soup for dinner. I had a kabocha squash and some kale on its last leg. No white onion, but I di

Not so Lazy Well, while I was super lazy on Sunday (thoroughly enjoyed by the way), I made up for that Monday. My original plan was to go into work a little late. But I ended up going in on time and just took off a little early instead. It was only 3 hours, but sometimes that makes such a huge difference. This meant I had plenty of time to get lots done including an 8-mile run. Our temps have gone from 75 to barely touching 55 overnight. I ended up slightly overdressing with the exception of the wind for my run. It was sunny, not quite 55, windy. So I wore long sleeves and shorts. Like I said, if it hadn't have been for the cold wind, I would have been miserably hot. I really was feeling wishy washy about the run. I knew once I got out there and going I'd be just fine. But sometimes I get this weird trepidation before heading out. I have no idea how to explain it. I just get a little anxious. Anyway, my goal was 8 miles at an easier pace. And I did just that. After my

Impromptu Long Run This weekend was a good one. Mostly low-key, but still lots of fun. I ended up getting in my long run on Friday. That wasn't exactly the plan. Jason was out of town, so I was going to run 5 miles then meet up with friends for a drink. Well, the happy hour plans fell through. But the run didn't. I actually ended up running with someone from work. We've chatted via email and talked about trying to run together, but it's just not happened yet. But, it ended up working out for us on Friday. I had worked extra to take off earlier on Friday. So I left work just before 3, went home and changed then ran from my house back down to the office to meet up with "B."  I won't lie, I was a bit nervous. I am always nervous when I run with someone new for the first time. You don't know what their pace might be or what if you have a crappy run. Anyway, it was really hot (70's) and the sunny. But there was a wind that kind of he

Ouchie Legs Let's see, I guess I can do a quick recap of the past few days before getting to Fun Facts Friday. Wednesday I went out for a run after work. My plan was 6, but I kind of wanted 8 miles. I ended up compromising with 7 miles. I kind of had to reel it in a bit as my running partner was going to come over for some yoga. And my legs were screaming at me to stop anyway. I had done legs Tuesday night. So 7 miles on Wednesday was over-kill to say the very least. I had hoped the run would loosen them up. Um....not so much. "A" stopped by around 5:45 and we did the same flexibility set up I've been doing. She's having a major hamstring problem, so this was ideal for both of us. After the yoga session, I cleaned up, put on my compression calf sleeves, and Jason and I had dinner - curried veggies w/ tofu using the curry paste I made last week. Hopefully I'll get around to remaking, tweaking and posting the recipe soon. Thursday morning started off wit

Cross-training and Minestrone  Monday night I ended up running 4.5 miles. It was one of those much much needed runs. Not a matter of should I but I must. I really should have only done 3 miles, but I just kept going and finally just had to stop myself. That meant today I really needed to not run. My plan was 8 miles. But in reality, I knew I needed to give my feet a break. In 3 days I had hit 19.5 miles. Time for some cross-training. I ended up doing legs and shoulders from Cathe's High Reps DVD . I've never tried that one. I really don't normally like high-rep workouts. But, I needed something different, something to keep me on my toes so to speak. And man oh man did it ever. I always forget how high reps can sting big time when it's not the workout you're used to. I followed the workout up with Cathe's MMA Kickboxing DVD . After all that, it was time to get down to the business of dinner. I was starved. The plan was soup for dinner since the temps have

Humidity Sucks 10-Miler  How is it Monday already? Didn't the weekend just begin? At least we had that time change finally. I am not really happy about it getting dark so early, but at least it won't be pitch black until 7:15 in the mornings now. Always a trade off I suppose. Saturday morning we got up planning on a 10-mile run. While I understand Jason's desire to take it slow on Saturday mornings, as in sleep in, watch cartoons, eat a leisurely breakfast and THEN go for a run, sometimes waiting bites us in the butt. It's hard to believe that a week ago we were wearing sleeves and capris for our half marathon. This Saturday I had on shorts and a sports bra as it was steadily climbing into the 70's. And the humidity was 97% with a front coming through. So it was hot, humid, windy. And the sun was out in full force too. Gorgeous day for sitting out and enjoying, but not so much for a 10-mile run. I decided to give my new calf sleeves another shot for a run. So

Evening Run Yesterday my running partner and I had made plans to go for a run after work. I got off work at 4 and A was getting off at 4:45. We actually work in buildings just diagonal from each other. The plan was that I'd run from my house to her office and she'd just run straight from her office home. I overestimated how long it was going to take me to get there. I guess I thought crossing traffic might take me longer. It was a gorgeous afternoon, but quite a bit warmer (low 70's) than it's been. So back to warm-weather running again.... I donned my new pink compression calf sleeves to test out as well. Again, it was warm. A and I headed down towards the river where there are pedestrian only paths to follow. The downfall of afternoon running is afternoon traffic. Though, A and I were both wanting to take it easy, so lots of stops for traffic wasn't tragic by any means. The other thing about evening running is your fueling is off. I overestimated my water i

Recovery & Running Plans Yesterday my plan was to do weights after work. What happened was I felt worn out and decided to do some yoga instead. I figured I could use the additional stretching if nothing else. So, more of an active recovery day for me. Today the plan is to get in a run after work with my running buddy. It's really nice being able to run in the daylight now that it's not 90+ degrees. The only downfall is that there is definitely more traffic, so lots of stopping and starting. Of course, our plan is to take it easy, so that might end up being a good thing for us after all. Thursday Things I usually don't talk a lot about products I like. There are a few things I mention like my Triggerpoint Therapy Kit or my Cathe Friedrich DVDs . But today I've actually got a few things I've been using recently and liking that I'd like to share. I think it can be fun to hear about new products. I ordered these SLS3 Compression socks via Amazon last w